


Playing Buir

by andeemae



Series: Our dreams assured [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fox is the overprotective dad friend, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:27:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andeemae/pseuds/andeemae
Summary: The troopers out on the front don’t have enough practical knowledge of civilian interactions, and Fox isn’t about to let something happen on his watch.
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox & Sabé, CT-5597 | Jesse/Sabé, Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Series: Our dreams assured [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977586
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64





	Playing Buir

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Wars, I only play with the characters. 
> 
> AN: Sorry guys, not much romance this time. This would be set before the Zillo beast incident, I’m bad about writing things out of order, sorry!

Fox checks his datapad again, updates on transit delays, a massive speeder wreck that’ll force a reroute for Riyo’s return home. Things would be simpler if they could simply shoot over the top, but safety concerns and regulations make that an impossibility. 

“You could take the under ways,” Sabé tells him, reaching over Fox’s arm and tapping the screen. “See? Shorter distance than going all the way around Coco Town. Almost as good as going over the top.”

Wiping her suggestion away, Fox shoots her withered look. Does she really expect him to take a senator underside? 

She bites her lip, snorts. “It’s just a suggestion.”

Putting his longer, but much less risky, route into the pad, Fox sends his updated itinerary to the other commanders. He’ll provide an ETA when, if, this dinner party ever ends. 

Rubbing his eyes, Fox sighs, glances through the doorway. Surely Riyo, Senator Organa, and Senator Amidala are nearly done with their preparations...

It was a last minute change of plans, coming to Senator Amidala’s for dinner and discussion for the next day's meetings. 

“We’ve got to come up with a better plan or we’re going to lose many of our sustenance producing planets, either to the Seperatist or starvation,” Senator Amidala had told Riyo. “Senator Mattani has already mentioned the Stewjon system has brought up the possibility of breaking from the Republic to Bail.”

Riyo had eagerly agreed to the evening meeting. Being invited to join heavy hitters like Amidala and Organa was a big opportunity, and not one she was willing to pass up. Not even if it upset Fox’s carefully planned routes home. 

“I don’t think it will be a long planning session,” Riyo had assured him as she’d gathered one of her datapads and several flimsi notes, knocking a stack of external files and one of her little plants to the floor. 

Fox had dropped a knee and helped her gather up the files and scoop the dirt back into the little pot, carefully placed the plant back in and handed it to her. 

“Do you know how very big this is Fox?” She’d chewed her lip. “Senator Amidala inviting me for a private dinner meeting-I never expected-Pantora isn’t nearly important enough, and I’m not well connected-”

Fox grabbed her hand, squeezed it. “You’re a good senator, and they see that.”

Her hard work and good heart were serving her well. She has a sharp mind, and they clearly see that as an asset. 

Her worried expression had eased some and she’d squeezed his hand back, leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. 

“Your faith in me is...thank you,” she whispered, her breath warm on his skin, a pleasant distraction until she set back on her heels. She smiled warily. “I just hope I can provide some useful additions to the discussion.”

A discussion that seems to be never ending. Fox had hoped Sabé and Saché returning from Felucia would either delay the meeting or shorten it. A spice dream if there ever was. 

“Don’t change your plans on our account,” Saché had told the senators when she and Sabé arrived at the landing pad, fresh from a military transport and in battered shape. “I’ve got to get these karking reports filed or the goon council will have our choobs.”

“You mean we have reports to file,” Sabé corrected her. 

Saché waved her off. “It hardly takes two of us. Go home and get some rest.”

“I think both of you need to come home,” Senator Amidala told them, eying their ragged appearance, bruised skin and lank hair, baggy military issue uniforms cinched at the waist. “You look exhausted.”

Exhausted was a kind way of saying they looked like bantha shit. Fox had looked more rested and fresh faced after three days without sleep, a gallon of caf, and several stim sticks. 

Saché rolled her eyes. “Like that matters to the Director.”

Fox didn’t doubt that. The SBI director wasn’t exactly known as sweet tempered or having a particularly forgiving nature. Still, Saché had never cared about upsetting her chain of command before. 

“The reports are for our counterparts in military,” Sabé explained, easily reading Fox’s confusion. She smiled softly. “If it weren’t information that could save lives, we would let it wait until tomorrow.”

The three women had argued for several minutes after that, while Fox, Riyo, and the handful of private guards Naboo was still allowed, stood at a distance and waited in awkward silence. 

In the end, after what looked like a rather intense game of odds evens, Saché got her way. She stayed at the Senate, down in the basement office, to file the reports while Sabé went home with Senator Amidala. 

“I’ll leave Captain Typho here to bring you home at least,” the Senator told her. 

“Padmé,” Saché grumbled, “I can take a cab.”

“That’s inadvisable,” Fox cut in. “There have been a lot of...incidents, as of late, with solitary travelers.”

Particularly female travelers. The Corrie Police had at least realized they were out of their depths in the matter and had requested assistance from the Guard, giving Fox full and unfortunate knowledge of the details of the crimes. 

Annoying as Saché could be, he didn’t wish suffering on her. 

“I used to be a bodyguard and I was just on the front lines of a war,” Saché pointed out. She arched an eyebrow. “I think I can handle a cab ride.”

Fox ignored her points, turned to Senator Amidala. “I’ll send transport to pick her up once she’s done.”

Senator Amidala smiled, shot Saché a look that plainly said not to argue. She may not be her boss, but she still had some measure of control over her former handmaidens. 

“Thank you, Commander. That would be most helpful.”

He’d pointed at Saché. “Be done by ten and send a message before you leave the office.”

Her eyes rolled again. “Yes, dad.”

Once she’d safely vanished into the basement, the group had departed, meeting Senator Organa at Senator Amidala’s apartment.

The discussion had started before food was even set out, and Fox had settled just out of view, in the kitchen with Sabé while the fussy protocol droid tottered around and directed the kitchen droid in matters of dining etiquette. 

Riyo was quiet at the beginning, her soft voice only breaking in occasionally to agree with points. Fox had anxiously picked at the chocolate covered fruits Sabé sat between them, staring at the doorway and mentally willing her confidence. 

It takes until the dessert is carried past Fox, a three tiered cake with red and blue flowers decorating it, before Riyo begins offering her own opinions.

Fox tries not to grin as she begins gently suggesting alternative means for getting the much needed food for the Grand Army.

“I think setting up farms on unoccupied planets would be a twofold solution,” she tells them, her voice so soft Fox strains to hear her. “It could provide the food without wringing planets dry, and it would teach the clones useful, nonmilitary, skills.”

There won’t be a war forever, and the men will need not only means, but also a place to go when it does end. 

“And clones that are too injured for continued service could retire there,” Senator Organa says, sounding intrigued. “A very forward thinking plan, Riyo.”

Fox can imagine the indigo blush on her cheeks, smiles to himself and wishes he could see the delighted expression on her face at the acknowledgment.

“Look at you, such a proud beau,” Sabé says, startling him back to his senses.

Fox mops up some of the salty gravy left on his plate with the remnants of his roll, glares across the counter at her. 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grunts, stuffing the soggy bread in his mouth.

Sabé laughs softly, shakes her head. “Keep playing it off, sweetness, but you boys are terrible liars. Saché and I had the two of you figured out ages ago, remember?”

He does, unfortunately, but he’s still going to hold on to some dignity and deniability by not confirming their suspension.

“It’s just-it’s very sweet,” Sabé adds, sliding onto the stool beside him. “More love in the galaxy is never a bad thing.”

Fox cringes. She sounds like an advert for Corellian General, simplistic and dull.

She laughs again, props her elbow on the counter and rests her cheek against her knuckles as she smiles over at him. 

“Just because you think something is childish, doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Fox scowls. He hates it when she does that. 

“Stop that,” he grumbles. “It’s annoying.”

He hates being read like a book, his unconscious sifted through and interpreted. It makes him feel even more like a product and less a man than he is.

Sabé stares at him a moment, her smile frozen until it begins to fade. She turns in her seat and begins toying with a disposable napkin, her eyes focusing on her fingers as she shreds the flimsi. Despite having cleaned up, her nails are still jagged and broken, cuts and bruises on her knuckles. No shower can wash away the injuries. 

“You know we don’t mean anything by it, right? We do it with everyone,” she tells him softly, picking at a scab on the back of her hand. She could do with a bacta patch, or ten. 

Fox nods. She and Saché are Lorrdian, reading people is their nature as much as military procedure and assembling a blaster is part of the clones’. 

“I would just like to pretend I have some secrets,” he finally tells her, shifting in his seat, tearing his gaze from the gash on her forearm. 

Sabé snorts, cuts him a look and a smirk.

“It certainly will be pretending.”

Huffing, Fox sops up some more gravy and is about to finish it off when Sabé’s communicator chirps. 

“Sissy! Tell dad I don’t need a ride,” Saché’s voice says over the link. 

Sabé frowns, puts the comm to her lips. “What? Sach, do not take a cab, Fox has been telling me about the cases the Guard has been working and-”

“I’m not taking a cab,” Saché cuts her off. She seems to hesitate for a moment before adding, “Fives turned up. He’s got a swoop. He’s bringing me home.”

Frowning, Fox sifts through his memory for the name. It is clearly a clone, but not one he’s familiar with. 

He doesn’t like it. 

Sabé’s eyes widen. 

“The five hundred and first are back?” She sits up a bit, a little more alert. “I thought they were being shipped to Malastare?”

“Not yet.”

Fox glances around, half expecting the five hundred and first’s general to materialize. If they're on Coruscant, Skywalker will be nipping at Senator Amidala’s heels in no time. How either of them think they’re being subtle is beyond him. 

Sabé snorts, clearly reading his body language on the matter, but doesn’t say anything. 

“Well, I’ll notify security not to shoot you out of the air,” Sabé tells her sister.

“Like they’d hit us anyway.”

The channel closes and Sabé shrugs. “I guess you can have her ride stand down.”

Fox scowls. He should still have Saché and whatever idiot is lapping at her tailed, out of an abundance of caution. Skywalker’s bunch are a motley crew.

If they take after their general they’re also reckless and stupid. A bad combination when ladies are involved, in Fox’s mind. 

Standing, Sabé pats him on the back and starts toward the dining area, undoubtedly to tell Senator Amidala her not so secret admirer is back planet side. Fox can only hope this development speeds the discussion to an end. 

Before she’s even to the archway though, her comm chirps again. 

With a sigh, she lifts it to her lips. 

“Sabé speaking.”

“Miss Lindzee, you’ve got a visitor downstairs,” the curt Coruscanti voice tells her. 

“A visitor?” Sabé frowns, brows pulled together in confusion. How could she have a visitor? No one knows she’s even back on planet. 

Fox immediately glares around, certain a problem is about to reveal itself. 

The comm crackles. “It’s a clone, ma’am.”

The disdain in the voice is evident, oozing over the channel. Clone is spoken with the same tone as garbage.

Fox grinds his teeth. He may not be happy about one of his fellow clones encroaching on his limited time, but he doesn’t appreciate the apartment security’s clear sentiment. 

“We’ve got it at the droid entrance, in the bay.”

Sabé’s nose wrinkles up at the implication. Her visitor isn’t deemed worthy of a proper reception. A clone belongs with droids and refuse and deliveries. 

Fox simply glares at her comm, imagining knocking the stuffing out of the gundark on the other side. 

Sabé closes her eyes, sighs. “I’ll be down shortly.”

Snatching up a shawl, she throws it around her shoulders before combing her fingers through her hair and grimacing. It’s uneven where the droid had haphazardly chopped burnt ends out after her shower, promising her the cosmology droid would repair the damage in the morning. 

Standing, Fox glances over his shoulder at the entry to the dining area. They’re in an inner chamber with dozens of Naboo security. It’s a low risk area, even with Amidala and Organa present. 

He starts to follow Sabé and she stops, arches an eyebrow. 

“I don’t need an escort, you know?” Her lips quirk up. “It’s probably just one of Anakin’s men looking for him. I know you know how he is when he’s on Coruscant.”

Constantly hovering over Senator Amidala. There’s no reason even bothering with pretending they don’t both know that. 

“I’m still coming,” Fox grunts, shoving his bucket on. He doesn’t trust those idiots. The troopers out on the front don’t have enough practical knowledge of civilian interactions, and Fox isn’t about to let something happen on his watch. 

Shaking her head, Sabé leads him to the service elevator and they descend, down to the sub level where deliveries and droids are granted entrance. 

It’s solid gray in the sub level, lined with cool white lights. There are storage pods stacked carefully in recesses, vintage speeders with protective shields covering them, even a few vaults bolted to the walls lining their path to the bay. 

Sabé stops at the corner, turns to Fox. 

“Stay here. I promise I’ll scream if I need you.”

Before Fox can argued, she hurries around the corner. 

Scowling, Fox ups his audio receiver, wishes he had access to the building’s security holos so he’d have visual contact as well. 

“Jesse,” he hears Sabé say, her voice genuine and warm. “I didn’t know you boys were coming to Coruscant.”

The idiot doesn’t say anything, Fox can feel his gawking through the air, and he’s on the cusp of taking the corner and telling him staring is rude on multiple systems when he sputters to life. 

“Yeah the uh-the General requested a respite for us,” he finally explains. “We’ve got a week here before shipping back out.”

“Good, that’s good. You’ve all had some difficult campaigns. You deserve a break.” She pauses, Fox knows she’s making a face. “More of a break than you’ll get, anyways.”

“Eh, we like to stay active.” His boots shuffle on the dirty duracrete underfoot, makes a gravelly noise. “You...I-you said when we were back Corrie side to come by. I thought-we offloaded, so I thought we could go somewhere. For food.”

For food? What the kark does that mean?

Fox hears her take a few steps closer, her voice dropping almost too low for his receiver. 

“For-Jesse...like a date?”

There’s a shuffling of boots again. 

“Well, it would just be us, and...us, yeah, so…” he lets out a sigh. “‘Date’, would be an appropriate designation.”

Fox rolls his eyes. Of course a grunt would think this was an appropriate time to call on a lady. She’s already in her nightclothes, surely even the dimmest of the Fett genes could see that?

The trooper sucks in a breath. 

“But I’m an idiot, and you are already dressed for the evening in, and-”

“Jesse,” Sabé cuts him off softly, “Saché and I just got back to Coruscant too. I’m not dressed for the night, just...dressed comfortably.”

Fox huffs. She’s being too gentle. 

“No, I-”

“I just got out of the shower, see?” A moment passes as she presumably shows him her still damp hair. “So unless I’m too much of a wreck to be seen in public with, we can go down to the park. There’s vendors on the paths.”

It’s such a blatant lie Fox can’t help but roll his eyes. She’s beat and bruised and all but wearing fuzzy nerf slippers. The idiot trooper is too thunderstruck by good fortune with a pretty girl to see that though. 

“Really?”

Sabé laughs. “Yes, really. I could do with a little fresh Coruscanti air.”

Fox shakes his head. Fresh Coruscanti air? If the trooper doesn’t catch that joke Fox will round the corner and knock some sense into him. He can’t let a clone so dim witted be running about in public. 

Fortunately for the trooper, he chuckles. “Right.”

“Let me go upstairs to put on some shoes,” Sabé tells him, her bare feet scuffing on the ground. 

A moment later she rounds the corner, catching Fox by the wrist and tugging him along with her. 

“I’m going for a walk.”

“I heard,” Fox grunts. “I advise against it.”

They step on the turbolift and she shrugs. 

“I’m still going.” She smiles. “I’ll be fine. Jesse is sweet.”

Fox makes a harsh noise. He’s known a lot of brothers, and ‘sweet’ is not how he’d describe any of them. 

“He is.”

“He’s looking for a lay.” Just like every grunt on leave. 

Sabé snorts. “Then I’ll give him the address for a clean brothel.”

Fox rolls his eyes. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. My Nammy was a madam. I know the best places for a lonely soldier to try.”

When Fox only glares through his visor at her in response, she pats his arm. 

“Don’t worry so much.”

He worries a sufficient amount. 

She hurries off the lift and Fox checks that the discussion is still dragging on, now moved on to compensation plans for the beleaguered planets, before going back and holding the lift doors. 

Sabé chuckles when she spots him. 

“Are you planning on chaperoning?”

“Just going to have a little chat with the lad,” Fox answers, one hand instinctively going to the blaster at his hip. 

She glares “No, you’re not.”

“He needs to know you’ve got someone watching your six.”

And he needs to be educated on what is and isn’t proper behavior with a lady. These boys from the front are all hormones and no brain, not an ounce of good manners. 

Sabé groans. “He knows if he does anything stupid Ani will have his nuts, Fox. I think one maniac looming threateningly in the shadows is plenty.”

In Fox’s mind there is no upper limit on protective figures, but decides not to push the point. 

He follows her off the lift, down the hall, catches her by the arm before she turns the corner.

“You knock him in his ugly mug if he gets too forward.”

She smiles. “He’s got that Mandalorian blood though, I think fist fighting is considered flirting.”

Fox sighs. She’s an idiot too. “I’m requesting a tail for you.”

She grabs his hand before he can hit his comm. 

“I’m joking, Fox. I’ll knock his teeth out if he gets frisky.”

Before he can say another word, she’s squeezed his hand and hurried off and around the corner. 

Still scowling, Fox steps around the corner and watches as Sabé tugs the trooper, a grunt with the Republic cog plastered on his face, along behind her. 

The trooper must see the red of Fox’s armor, because he glances back, over his shoulder, his brows pulled together when he spots him. 

Fox rests his hands on his blasters, glares through his visor before tapping the side of his bucket. A reminder he’s got his eyes on him. 

To his great satisfaction, the trooper’s expression becomes concerned and his color drains a bit. 

It’s not as good as a discussion about proper conduct, but it's better than nothing. At least the trooper knows someone has his number. 

He requests the tail on the ride back up, only for Thorn to cancel it. 

“Sabé already warned me you were playing buir, vod,” he tells Fox over their command channel. “Let the girl breath.”

“You know what those fools on the front are like,” Fox grumbles. “Rutting anything that’ll give them a moment.”

And Sabé is being far too generous with her moments. 

“Are you sure you aren’t projecting your own filthy deprevities onto our less fortunate brothers?”

“I’m blocking you.”

“As long as it’s not the cock-blocking you are so keen to dispense. It’s this kind of behavior that makes me not want to introduce you to Ki-”

Fox cuts the channel and puts an hour block on all Thorn’s nonsense. 

He amends it, makes it twelve hours and updates his passcode when Thorn splices back into the channel with Fox’s stolen code. 

When he steps off the turbo and back into the kitchen it’s to the sound of the three senators ending their discussion. 

“I think we’ve got some good points and possible options to bring to the committee,” Senator Amidala says as she taps a few more things into her datapad.

Senator Organa rubs his temples. “At least it will be a good faith effort for our friends in the Stewjon Sector, and we can only hope that’s enough to keep them from abandoning the Republic.”

Riyo nods, smoothes out a wrinkle in her skirt and flashes Fox a quick smile before picking up her datapad and pressing it to her chest. 

“Ready when you are, Commander.”

Before Fox can even raise his comm, Senator Amidala catches his arm. 

“Is Sache heading home?”

Fox hesitates. “That’s a bit...complicated, ma’am.”

One of her eyebrows rises. “Complicated?”

He nods. “She-a trooper she knows is escorting her home.”

“Not organized by you?”

“No ma’am.” He sighs. “The, ah, the five oh first are on Coruscant. It was one of their troopers went by for her. Another one came by just a moment ago and took Sabé for a walk.”

Her eyes widen just enough for Fox to notice the realization. Skywalker’s troops being in town means Skywalker is in town. 

“Well that’s excellent news,” she says. “They’ve been in some heavy fighting. They’ve earned a break.”

Fox doesn’t miss the anxious looks she casts the city skyline as her guests first wait for their speeders and then board. She bids them a quick farewell before hurrying off to the other side of her apartments. 

“Padmé must be worried about Sabé and Saché,” Riyo tells Fox as the droid guides the speeder towards Fox’s updated route, around the pileup in the skylane. “She was certainly watching the horizon for them.”

Fox snorts. “It is not her friends she is anxious about.”

Riyo frowns, lower lip puckered in thought, brows knitted together as she looks at him. He chuckles. Of course she’s missed the signs. As keen as the minds of senators are, they very often miss the mundane.

“Fox? What do you mean?” She scoots closer. 

“I don’t like gossip,” Fox mumbles, face warming. 

Which is true. He loves it.

Riyo snorts.

“You’re a terrible liar, my love.” She takes his hand between both hers, widens her eyes. “Please tell me.”

Fox runs his tongue over his teeth, cuts her a look before sighing. 

“You really don’t know?”

Her face pinches up. “Know what?”

He feels his lips quirk at the edges. 

“We should wait until we get back to the apartment.”

She groans. 

-

“You’re certain,” Riyo says again, her head pillowed on Fox’s chest. “Gettsi was always sure Padmé and Bail were having an affair.”

“Senator Organa?” Fox scoffs. “Devoted as a Geejaw.”

It had actually been a common belief among the Guard, and when both Naboo and Alderaan successfully petitioned to keep their private security, it had reinforced the suspicion. The senators had to be involved in something salacious. 

Thire had actually spearheaded the investigation to determine if it was fact, turning up the reality.

“But he’s a Jedi,” Riyo adds. “I don’t think it’s allowed.”

“It’s not.” 

They’d thoroughly probed Jedi doctrine upon the discovery, he explains, purely to settle a disagreement between Thire and Stone. 

While sexual relations are tolerated, emotional entanglements are forbidden, at least from what Thire understood. Whatever Skywalker and the Senator have, though, it’s beyond purely physical. 

Not that any of the Guard care. Senator Amidala’s kindness to the clones has earned her latitude. Her private life, as far as they’re all concerned, is off limits for broad discussion. Besides that, they’re all sympathetic to the subject of forbidden love.

Fox shrugs. “So allowed or not, they are...involved.”

Though to what degree Fox isn’t sure. Not that they haven’t tried to determine it. Skywalker and Amidala may not be good at hiding their tryst from anyone not blind, but the extent of it is anyone’s guess. They’ve got competent friends, at least, covering their tracks.

They could be married and the Guard wouldn’t know. 

“How did I miss it?” Riyo huffs. 

Chuckling, Fox strokes her hair, twirls a strand in his fingers. “You’ve got larger issues to pay attention to than romantic liaisons.”

Which is fortunate. The less attentive the Senate at large is of its members' dalliances the less likely they are to notice Fox and Riyo’s own liaison.

“Hmm,” she hums, presses closer to Fox before yawning. “I suppose.”

She squints up at him. 

“Any other romances I’ve managed to miss?”

“Any you have actually noticed?”

Riyo laughs. “Fair point.”

She settles against his chest more firmly, her warm breath ghosting over his skin.

“I hope they get a happy ending,” she finally says, voice thick with sleepiness. 

Fox understands the sentiment. If another pair can survive unnecessary rules and baffling constraints, then there might be hope for them. 

Tracing the marking on her cheek, Fox nods, presses a kiss to her hair. He inhales her scent, fruity shampoo and spiced Pantoran soap on her skin. 

Closing his eyes, he relaxes and sighs.

“I hope they do too.”


End file.
